In a recent conversation I found myself trying to determine what “belief” is. While the definition is natural to my atheistic sensibilities, I think one is confused or, uses interchangeably, ‘belief’ and ‘Belief’ (with an uppercase ‘B’).

Demonstrably, one has suggested that belief is a lacking of empirical data to which an intuitive decision is made in order to effect a positive outcome. Furthermore, belief in this case, does not require evidence and outright refutes evidence, due to lack of time or other capacity to grasp an empirical understanding of a given situation.

With the above example, I’d like to say that this is not religious Belief. You may call it prejudice or intuition, but it does not equate religious Belief. What I would suggest is happening here is, one’s arguing for belief as justifying faith, is suggesting the ubiquity of intuition and imagination among human beings is an attestation to the validity of religious Belief.

Of interest in the same scenario, is human beings’ constant missteps in situations that involve a lack of data, or refutation of data. Belief (intuition/imagination) has famously let down the best of us (http://www.businessinsider.com/worst-mistakes-in-history-2011-4?op=1). Admittedly, we often experience positive outcomes with the use of intuition. I would give an example, but feel it boring.

There’s also the fact that a conversation or communication, can be fallacious. The resulting belief can be based on a lie whether intentional or not. At any rate, trust is self-negotiated, but not completely without the potential to result in falsity.

Essentially, belief, as I have written about it so far, is only a mechanism to allow minute to minute fluidity in experience. You could even go so far as to say, day by day experience. Longer time periods allow for more research and gathering of more data with which to act. Longer time periods also allow for intervening events that support or dismantle the premise. Summarily, these ephemeral beliefs can, and do, get altered. There is a noticeable lack of any concrete authority or top-down bureaucracy.

The sun will rise in the west tomorrow.

You’ve analysed and considered this statement many times from varying angles within seconds. You’ve already psychically told me “no, this will not happen”. You do not believe it as much as you’ve taken the last 200,000 years of human history, your own life’s history and scientific data into consideration. You “believe” that this will not happen. There are some, however, that do.

Interestingly, belief encompasses a dimension of “prophecy vs. prediction”, but we won’t get into the nitty gritty here. I’m sure you can figure out the difference.

There are some that Believe homosexuality is wrong. There are some that Believe that women are functionally inferior to men (and that includes a large portion of women too). There are some that Believe abortion morally wrong. There are some that Believe stem cell research an abomination. There are some that Believe the Earth 6,000 years old, and by God’s grace, our generations were saved by a wooden boat that housed every single living plant and animal for 40 days and 40 nights upon a flooded infinity. To put it simply, these Beliefs are the product of indoctrination and of an institutionally supported ignorance. But it doesn’t end with mere Belief.

Gays are thrown off of rooftops. Infant girls have their genitalia mutilated. Countries have their governments legislate death penalties for apostasy. Droves of extremists are propelled into borderline genocide. All based on “Belief”. There is no evidence to show that any of these actions are morally sound or even beneficial to the flourishing of mankind. However, the Belief persists.

Belief calls into action a god made of nothing but oddly influenced social structures and what the ignorantly pious don’t know. It has been a drag and a bloody mess to crawl out of religiosity (where it applies). As Sam Harris notes, moderate religiosity is not a product of religion, but of largely irreligious, scientific and secular interests and we’ve all been better for it (even the religious).

In the earlier definition of belief, I hope, it has been made clear that such belief denotes a flexibility to avoid the worse outcome for parties involved. The latter definition purports extremes such as death and are followed through to varying degrees. In reality, we see a world where Belief ends with death. Martyrdom and the promise of eternal bliss is a Belief some give their lives to. If not to such extremes, they harbour hatred and prejudice toward fellow human beings. If the fatality is ignored, as so many have done in the name of religious sensitivity, we encounter appalling educational aberrations such as diminished sex ed curricula, the non-education of girls and the advocacy of intelligent design as a fact of our existence. Women continue to wear the burqa against their will. Others celebrate it as a choice they’ve made out of proudly ignoring their oppressed counterparts in Saudi Arabia and Iran.

My goal here is not to say that human beings aren’t allowed to use their imaginative faculties to their fullest extent. I’m not saying that there is an existential religiosity that we should ignore. What I am saying is, we cannot use those dimensions of mind to justify clear affronts to reason and morality. In some cases, the Belief I’m trying to demarcate, leads to ignorance, bigotry and even death. We cannot afford to justify ignorance due to our more irrational sensibilities. In the spectrum of human behaviour, we have to realize Belief is not to be taken above reason.

ADDENDUM:

I’ve mostly addressed belief as a religious occurrence and for the most part, it proportionally represents the numbers. One should note, however, that political systems can venture into areas of belief. As stated, there is a spectrum of belief in various structures. But, other forms of belief are usually shorter lived than religious belief.